Established in 1988, the Urban Sites Network (USN) connects teachers and writing project leaders nationwide to work on improving the teaching and learning of urban children. USN focuses on teacher inquiry and professional development, while encouraging teachers to share promising classroom practices with each other through conferences, retreats, online forums, and minigrant programs.
Goals
- To strengthen urban writing projects sites, particularly new and rebuilding sites, in order to tackle the critical concerns of urban schools
- To grow, support, and sustain diverse teacher leadership pools in urban writing project sites and urban schools in general
- To increase awareness of the ways that teaching and learning are inseparably linked to race, class, gender, language, culture, and social justice
- To identify and analyze the significance of urban contexts on student achievement and the achievement gap
- To stem the tide of urban teacher attrition by supporting the unique needs of new teachers in urban schools.